The magazine is a manual of gossip of romances among the Hollywood community, reviews of movies, and lots of photos of stars provide a lush and lightweight publication all for ten cents.
It does, however, feature an interesting editorial by Managing Editor Ernest V. Heyn defending the industry from the notoriously Nazified Senator Burton K. Wheeler (R-Montana) and Senator Gerald K. Nye (R-North Dakota) whose America First Committee were against all bad representations of Nazism, and accused the film industry of being communist and run by Jews. Any negative portrayal of the Nazis was regarded by these two fascists as being warmongering.
As the editorial begins somewhat incredulously, "Who would have thought six months ago that Wendell Wilkie would have to be called in by the Motion-picture industry to defend Hollywood against the accusations of war propaganda by the Wheelers and Nyes?"
With admirable spirit and a light, almost humorously wry touch, Editor Heyn stands up for the industry and his magazine and introduces a companion article by columnist Walter Winchell, then recently appointed Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve, to write about some of the Hollywood rank and file who joined the service. We were still a few weeks away from Pearl Harbor and so we were a peacetime Navy that he describes, but it is telling to see how many men were willing to compromise or even give up their film careers in anticipation of what might be coming.
We could use such courage, practicality, and foresight today to stand up to authoritarianism, at home and abroad. Dictatorship does not look good on us.
Among those already enlisted then were Ensign Wayne Morris; Lieutenant Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.; Commander Wallace Beery; Lieutenant Robert Montgomery; and writer-producer Lieutenant Commander Gene Markey.
Winchell was famous for his staccato delivery on the radio with..."Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. America, and all the ships at sea..." So long ago, but it might have been yesterday.
The issue does not provide the typical Thanksgiving salutation (with stars posed with turkeys), but I will add it here: for those Americans out there celebrating the holiday, may I wish you very Happy Thanksgiving!
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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. and Movies in Our Time - Hollywood Mirrors and Mimics the Twentieth Century and Hollywood Fights Fascism and Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.
My new non-fiction book, CHILDREN'S WARTIME ADVENTURE NOVELS - The Silent Generation's Vicarious Experience of World War II -- is now available in eBook here at Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, and a wide variety of other online shops.
And it is here in eBook, paperback print, and hardcover, from Amazon.
From Cherry Ames, to Meet the Malones, from Dave Dawson to Kitty Carter - Canteen Girl, the Silent Generation spent their childhood immersed in geopolitical events through the prism of their middle grade and young adult books. From the home front to the battlefield, these books are a window on their world, and influenced their hard-working, conformity-loving generation.
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